Plot lengthners/mini stories http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/mainstream-fiction/threads/41991 blackelttree I'm sure someone's had the same need and posted about it, but I looked through quite a few and couldn't find anything, so here goes: My book is about a girl running away from home from San Francisco to Salt Lake City. The bus she meant to take broke down, so she's left with no idea on how to get to Salt Lake City. She starts getting creative, she hitchhikes, steals a bike, etc. On her way, she accidentally created her Utopia, and the world starts getting creepy and perfect. My problem is, 1. I know nothing about anything in the west part of the US. 2. I'm pretty much finished writing and only at 35k I've mostly got the first one figured out since Google maps is the best thing on the planet, but I need ideas on how to make my novel longer. I've added scenes by request from a lot of my friends, but it's just not cutting it. I'm really afraid that I'll work this hard to get where I am, and then fail because I never managed to grasp a complicated enough plot to write that many words. Wed, 23 Nov 2011 09:13:49 -0600 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/mainstream-fiction/threads/41991?page=1#forum_thread_comment_817706 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/mainstream-fiction/threads/41991?page=1#forum_thread_comment_817706 Ramblejack Try looking up some urban myths and legends from the different places you want your character to visit. Some of them can be silly (like the Hodag from Rhinelander, Wisconsin) or they could be fantastic (like Area 51). You can build on those pretty easily. Since they're legends, you have a pretty open ticket to tweak them to your liking and creep out your MC as much or as little as you want. Or you can have her catch a ride with someone going someplace that she didn't mean to go, like hiding on a flatbed truck that ends up swinging farther east in Oregon, and then have her need to travel a longer distance to get to her goal. Of course, there are lots of gold mine legends out there... Wed, 23 Nov 2011 12:03:57 -0600 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/mainstream-fiction/threads/41991?page=1#forum_thread_comment_819274 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/mainstream-fiction/threads/41991?page=1#forum_thread_comment_819274 blackelttree Thanks! I combined your two ideas, using area 51. Since I don't know too much about it, I only wrote a couple thousand words for this scene, but every word counts. Wed, 23 Nov 2011 22:07:57 -0600 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/mainstream-fiction/threads/41991?page=1#forum_thread_comment_826186 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/mainstream-fiction/threads/41991?page=1#forum_thread_comment_826186 GypsyLuc I wonder... Does everything flow smoothly into her Utopian world? Is it a smooth linear transition? Or does it oscillate to reality & back? If there are peeks & glimmers early on where she is struggling to figure out which is which, it could definitely add a dramatic element. Also, the vascillations between the real world & her 'created' one will provide a good way to amp up the wordcount. Also, are you digging into the thoughts she is having about what she is experiencing or is it just a play-by-play account. The thought life of the MC adds enumerable opportunities to flesh her out & make her 3-D while padding the # of words. Reveal her internal reactions which may or may not align with what she shows outwardly. Wed, 23 Nov 2011 22:24:24 -0600 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/mainstream-fiction/threads/41991?page=1#forum_thread_comment_826360 http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/mainstream-fiction/threads/41991?page=1#forum_thread_comment_826360